Room treatment needed for tracking vox & guitars?

[TCW]

Hi All,

Everyone says 'room treatment' is one of the critical aspects for a project studio...

I was wondering what you thoughts were for the needed room treatment for tracking vox & guitars (elec and acoustic).

For vox, wouldn't deadening the space (gobos w/ corning 703 panels, blankets, etc) be sufficient?

For guitars, what's needed here? Deadening the room reflections, or getting the RIGHT refelctions, or controling the bass, or...?

FWIW, my studio is 10x22', carpet floors, has 2" wedge sound absorbtion tiles in various crucial areas (for mixing), no bass traps, two very large gobos.

Thanks!
Tom

[Scott R. Foster]

A classic "boxers or briefs" question.. and the answer of course is as Bob Dole stated: "Depends".

First off, when close micing using a directional mic on a loud signal source, the room reverb component of the recorded sound is going to be trivial. Stick a '57 in the mouth of a Twin and doesn't much matter whether you are in the laundry room or Albert Hall.

Stick a large diaphragm condensior a couple of feet in front of a vocalist and the nature of the room does start to matter... start talking overheads on live drums and the room sound will kill the buzz, or help make the track juicy depoending on how good it is.

As sources are placed further from the mic, and the mic less directional the room sounds goes from trivial to critcal.

Also, in a small room with reflective surfaces, just about everything is going to sound lousy compared to a more balanced and open room - thus a reflective / untreated booth is a tough place to do your best work regardless of how you mic the instrument.

Generally broadband treatment [absorbers that work on everything from lows to highs] in corners, and earlry reflection control will make any room sound better - and thus be a better place to work - and the smaller the room the more beneficial such treatment typically works out to be.


Good Luck!

[TCW]

Do you think bass traps are critical for a 10x22' room, or would a couple of gobos positioned in two different corners do the trick? (Part of my problem, is that 2 of the corners have doorways, so no real wall space there.)

Also, are the round diffusers/reflectors things needed, or just REDUCTION of the reflection?

[Ethan Winer]

Tom,

Originally Posted by TCW

I was wondering what you thoughts were for the needed room treatment for tracking vox & guitars (elec and acoustic).

It's all explained here:

Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms

For vox, wouldn't deadening the space (gobos w/ corning 703 panels, blankets, etc) be sufficient?

Sure, for voice frequencies only you can get away with less than for mixing.

my studio is 10x22', carpet floors, has 2" wedge sound absorbtion tiles in various crucial areas (for mixing), no bass traps, two very large gobos.

The problem with 2-inch thick foam is it absorbs at higher frequencies only, but does nothing for the bass and low-mid ranges.

Is this an all-in-one room, or a tracking room only? Regardless, the goal is to have absorption that works well over as wide a range as possible.

--Ethan

[Pandemonium]

Hi.
I've always wondered about the same question.
I read everywhere about room treatment, but focused in monitor room acoustics.
I have an All in One room, where I mix, and track acoustic instruments. It is a small - medium sized room.
What's the best treatment for a tracking room? Broadband absorbers in corners?, and early reflection absorbers in walls?

Thanks

Pandemonium

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Pandemonium

What's the best treatment for a tracking room? Broadband absorbers in corners?, and early reflection absorbers in walls?

The best treatment for a tracking room is almost identical to a control room. The goal in both is to minimize peaks and nulls, avoid ringing at all frequencies, have a uniform decay time over a wide range of frequencies, and avoid early reflections that cause comb filtering. The main difference might be placement of the mid/high frequency absorption because the source of early reflections is different in each situation. But generally, once a room sounds good, it sounds good for everything.

I have an all-in-one room too, and there's plenty of bass trapping in the corners, more along the walls, and a fair amount of mid/high absorption scattered around.

--Ethan